Overview

In an elegant Spanish hotel lobby, a film cast and crew outdo one another in displays of professional and sexual rivalry while waiting endlessly for shooting to begin. Directly inspired by the troubled shoot of his previous film, the spaghetti western Whity, Fassbinder paints the creative process as a clash of monstrous egos; of which few are more unflattering than Lou Castel's take on the tyrannical director himself.

Choreographed like a ballet to music by Peer Raben, Donizetti, Elvis Presley and Leonard Cohen – and shot by the masterly Michael Ballhaus – this is Fassbinder's gorgeous ode to filmmaking, warts and all.

Effi Briest

Drama1974140 minsDirector: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Fassbinder's exquisitely subtle rendition of Fontane’s great novel, starring the great Hanna Schygulla as the titular 17-year-old who is forced into a socially advantageous marriage with a much older man.